Disappointed with VirtualBox development
Posted: 17. Jun 2009, 18:15
Hi,
I just saw the announcement for VirtualBox 3 and I got very disappointed with it's development. Don't get me wrong, VirtualBox it's a great a product and I'm grateful for such a product being free and I mean no disrespect but...
There still a few bugs that should be fixed which are more important than to add features as experimental DirectX support, for instance, I still have problems with copy/paste (#3211), I don't know if this is the proper trac item but it's the one I could find more related to the problem) between guest and host and this is a crucial problem in software like this that should have a higher priority. Another one is that shared folders are incompatible with Gedit in Linux (#2553). I'm sure there are many others, these two are the ones that I've been tracking...
Then, where's drag and drop support between guest and host? Why is such a feature missing from software like this? It's another thing that should have a higher priority... A better snapshot manager is long due too...
I understand that this software is open-source and all that, that makes it different from VirtualPC or VMware which have big companies behind the whole thing (but we do have Sun to an extent to don't we?) but it still bothers me to see lots and lots of blogs post saying how great VirtualBox really is but it still looses to the likes of VMware because of X and Y and yet, I see nothing being done in that regard. And I'm talking about really important features/bugs in this type of software. Sure, 3D acceleration is important, but not that important if the whole software doesn't do (correctly, without bugs) the basic stuff virtual machine software should do.
And what bothers me the most is that I haven't got one single reply from any VirtualBox developer in a bunch of trac items I created a week or so a go. Really, why have a trac system if you don't bother to use it properly? Also, when I post something on forums, I barely got any response and the ones I got, I don't even know if it's from the devs or not. I know it's free software, but we are still costumers right? We are the ones that use the software right? All I'm saying is that a little more feedback would be nice that's all, specially in the trac system...
I'm gonna be honest with you guys, I've always been a fan of VMware and always used it but a few months ago, it started giving me a huge problem where I had to stop using it and so my only other choice was VirtualBox. It's a nice piece of software but it still lacks lots of important and tiny little features that VMware has that every time I use it, I still miss them from VMware. Overall, VMware just worked better... All I'm saying is that when Windows 7 comes out I'm going to give VMware another spin to see if it doesn't give me problems I had in the past. And if it doesn't, I'll be moving from VirtualBox back to VMware cause I just can't handle a product like this. I have to handle it right now cause I have no choice and I really need it, but if I do have a choice, VMware is the way to go for me.
I'm not saying this to make you feel bad or anything, I'm sure you don't really care if I stop using one over the other, someone else will stop using VMware over VirtualBox and the cycle goes on... I'm saying this because I like VirtualBox, it has potential and I really would like to see it more well developed. I really like it enough to want to use it over VMware, but I can't do that unless bugs are fixed and important tiny features are added to make the overall user experience in virtual machines better. For now, I don't have a choice and I'll have to stick with VirtualBox until I can run VMware again on my machine. But I wish I could say that I use VirtualBox over VMware because it's better and because I like better, at the moment, I can't say that.
Rant over!
Please note that I'm just stating my own opinion and not trying to sound harsh or unappreciated, if I did, I'm sorry but that was not the intention. English is not my mother tongue and I have some difficulties expressing myself correctly some times and I apologize for that.
I just saw the announcement for VirtualBox 3 and I got very disappointed with it's development. Don't get me wrong, VirtualBox it's a great a product and I'm grateful for such a product being free and I mean no disrespect but...
There still a few bugs that should be fixed which are more important than to add features as experimental DirectX support, for instance, I still have problems with copy/paste (#3211), I don't know if this is the proper trac item but it's the one I could find more related to the problem) between guest and host and this is a crucial problem in software like this that should have a higher priority. Another one is that shared folders are incompatible with Gedit in Linux (#2553). I'm sure there are many others, these two are the ones that I've been tracking...
Then, where's drag and drop support between guest and host? Why is such a feature missing from software like this? It's another thing that should have a higher priority... A better snapshot manager is long due too...
I understand that this software is open-source and all that, that makes it different from VirtualPC or VMware which have big companies behind the whole thing (but we do have Sun to an extent to don't we?) but it still bothers me to see lots and lots of blogs post saying how great VirtualBox really is but it still looses to the likes of VMware because of X and Y and yet, I see nothing being done in that regard. And I'm talking about really important features/bugs in this type of software. Sure, 3D acceleration is important, but not that important if the whole software doesn't do (correctly, without bugs) the basic stuff virtual machine software should do.
And what bothers me the most is that I haven't got one single reply from any VirtualBox developer in a bunch of trac items I created a week or so a go. Really, why have a trac system if you don't bother to use it properly? Also, when I post something on forums, I barely got any response and the ones I got, I don't even know if it's from the devs or not. I know it's free software, but we are still costumers right? We are the ones that use the software right? All I'm saying is that a little more feedback would be nice that's all, specially in the trac system...
I'm gonna be honest with you guys, I've always been a fan of VMware and always used it but a few months ago, it started giving me a huge problem where I had to stop using it and so my only other choice was VirtualBox. It's a nice piece of software but it still lacks lots of important and tiny little features that VMware has that every time I use it, I still miss them from VMware. Overall, VMware just worked better... All I'm saying is that when Windows 7 comes out I'm going to give VMware another spin to see if it doesn't give me problems I had in the past. And if it doesn't, I'll be moving from VirtualBox back to VMware cause I just can't handle a product like this. I have to handle it right now cause I have no choice and I really need it, but if I do have a choice, VMware is the way to go for me.
I'm not saying this to make you feel bad or anything, I'm sure you don't really care if I stop using one over the other, someone else will stop using VMware over VirtualBox and the cycle goes on... I'm saying this because I like VirtualBox, it has potential and I really would like to see it more well developed. I really like it enough to want to use it over VMware, but I can't do that unless bugs are fixed and important tiny features are added to make the overall user experience in virtual machines better. For now, I don't have a choice and I'll have to stick with VirtualBox until I can run VMware again on my machine. But I wish I could say that I use VirtualBox over VMware because it's better and because I like better, at the moment, I can't say that.
Rant over!
Please note that I'm just stating my own opinion and not trying to sound harsh or unappreciated, if I did, I'm sorry but that was not the intention. English is not my mother tongue and I have some difficulties expressing myself correctly some times and I apologize for that.